Odisha police have arrested the mastermind behind the leak of the question paper of the Odisha Staff Selection Commission’s (OSSC) Junior Engineer (civil) main written examination from Bihar’s Patna.

The accused is an employee of the Bihar government and is presently posted at the rural works department — advance planning division-II, Patna. The examination was scheduled to be held on July 16 but following the leakage of the question paper, the examination had to be cancelled.

Balasore SP Sagarika Nath told The Telegraph: “So far 17 people, including the mastermind Vishal Kumar Chaurasia, have been arrested. Vishal is a government employee posted in Patna.”

She said: “The question paper was leaked by Virendra Singh, one of the workers of the printing press where the question paper was being printed. Virendra Singh hails from Bihar and works as a helper in the printing press outside Odisha, where question papers were printed.”

She added: “Virendra and Vishal hail from the same place. Telephonic communication has established that they knew each other for the last two months, during which Vishal proposed to Virendra to supply him with any relevant information regarding the question papers being printed at his printing press.”

According to police, on July 11, Vishal received information from Virendra that the question paper related to JE (civil) main examination, to be conducted by OSSC on July 16, was available.

Later, Vishal contacted his main associate Bijendra Kumar, who was apprehended from the spot on July 16 while distributing the question papers.

According to the police, Vishal got selected for the Comptroller and Auditor General services through the Central Staff Selection Commission’s Combined Graduate Level examination of 2013. He joined as a divisional accountant in the accountant general’s office in Patna in 2016.